StockXpert Shutting Down by Feb 11
Posted on February 3rd, 2010 in General, microstock | 4 Comments »
StockXpert announced on its forum that the site is ceasing operations as of today. The timeline for the wind-down is as follows:
- Feb 2: Uploading & user signup is being suspended; Uploads already in queue will be reviewed until Feb 10.
- Feb 10: Reviewing of Images Stops
- Feb 11: Searching & Downloading of Images Ceases
If you have credits at StockXpert, they will be transferred on a 1 for 1 basis to iStockphoto. Images & footage will not be copied over however. StockXpert will continue to remain live for certain operations and they plan to allow contributors who don’t have iStock accounts to request full payouts. (The post also mentions that contributors will be able to download their portfolios for some period of time.)
This move has been coming since Getty acquired Jupiter. And, as is clear from the screenshot above, Getty will be focusing their resources on iStock & Thinkstock. StockXchng (StockXpert’s free image sister site) will continue operating normally.
One final point of note: StockXpert contributors who opted in to subscriptions will have their images migrated to Thinkstock and they will be visible in the Hemera collection on that site.
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4 Responses
Very sorry, I liked this PhotoBank!
This is really sad news for the industry, yes we saw this coming…. however the official word on the Stockxpert site during the past months were "business as usual, we're not closing this site" every time a contributor posted the question in a forum we always had the same response…. so I understand business decisions, I also understand these decisions are not made overnight…. so then why Getty's policy was to lie their contributors…. In my opinion that's no too savy… but what do I know? and who cares?
It's a race to the bottom.
This pretty much ruined my day. Getty is the evil leviathon of the stock imagery world. Buying up or shutting down every stock image site that gives any competition to their overpriced monopoly. I refuse to purchase anything from Getty or any of their subsidiaries based on their heavy handed tactics. Fuck Getty!